The State Education Department’s intervention at East High School is grabbing all the headlines, but Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says turning around that failing school is not his biggest challenge (a reform plan is due by the end

Bolgen Vargas. Credit: FILE PHOTO

 of the month). Changing the district’s inflexible culture is the boulder in the road to success, he says. 

“All of us are responsible for what’s happened at East,” Vargas says. “We have complex problems that require focus to mitigate.”

And he says that starting new programs is not the answer when management fundamentals are ignored. For example, Vargas says he’s cleaned the district’s records of more than 1,000 students who were not even enrolled in the school district. After some digging, district officials found that most of the students are not even living in New York State anymore, he says. 

But until the whereabouts of the students are confirmed, the SED counts them among Rochester’s students. And it continues providing funding for their instruction.

“We have an organization that has agreed that this is acceptable,” Vargas says.

Board President Van White says he agrees with Vargas’s assessment of the district’s culture problem.

“Culture results from habits, and changing bad habits is difficult,” White says. “Bad habits grow when you don’t evaluate people or programs. A lot of times we don’t do what we say we’re going to do, and we don’t even know why.”

This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2014.

I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education,...

5 replies on “Vargas calls for culture change in city schools”

  2. Commissioner Adams — I hear you (“???”).

    The article is (in some respects) sick. WE HAVE GOT TO STOP THE MYSTICISM / MYSTIFICATION regarding serious problems and issue within the Rochester City School District, which is exactly what the article accommodates / allows. I mean, these guys are discussing “culture” and “organization” as if they are actually living-organisms with omnipotent power and control. Culture and organizations / cultures of organizations are FUNCTIONS OF PEOPLE — period. The culture of ANY organization is established, perpetuated, allowed, maintained, and / or changed via ACTIONS AND / OR IN-ACTIONS BY PEOPLE – PERIOD. Thus, the mystifying quote that: “We have an organization that has agreed that this is acceptable” is ludicrous (on it’s face). The statement really should be: ‘We have an organization [COMPOSED OF PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY TOP DECISION-MAKERS, who have agreed [VIA ACTIONS AND /OR IN-ACTIONS — NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY] that this is acceptable” This absolutely, necessarily includes Superintendent Bolgen Vargas and Board President Van White. They are necessarily part of the “agreement.” If this was not the case — not only would they be “calling for cultural change in city schools” — they would necessarily be making clear, decisive, moves — designed to ensure CHANGE. This really is very important — because it is not realistic, nor possible for mush-mouth people — who apparently don’t even have the where-with-all and / or the intestinal fortitude to clearly and accurately define / describe deep-seated, pervasive, historic problems and issues — to provide the kind of leadership that will be necessary in order to effectively address the problems and issues. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

  3. I agree with Dr. Vargas that a culture change is needed. Changing a culture means changing attitudes, priorities and philosophy of an organization – – – how and why that organization wants to do business. Transformation of the RCSD – – – changing the culture cannot be accomplished by closing schools, adding new courses to the curriculum, giving students more time on task, clearing the books of non-attending students, or more standardized tests. Changing the culture must begin with changing the mindset of each individual who has a vested interest in the district. The purpose and reasons for existence of the school district must become the focal point for all. There are transformation processes that have been successful in making dramatic culture changes in other school districts, corporations and even countries. Positive transformation can only happen when all constituents agree that there is a problem and desire to do their part to solve it. The entire country of Guatemala (including the president) adopted a process to change culture and a saying which means Transformation Begins with Me! I strongly believe that there is no reason why the Rochester community and RCSD cannot do the same.

  4. When you have 20-30 years (some people say 40-50 years) of failure in the RCSD, the only conclusion one can draw is that this system is rotten to the core. We keep having the same conversation year after year, but things never get better. In fact, they get worse. “Culture change”, yeah right.

  5. If this isn’t a case of throwing a rock and hiding your hand, I don’t know what is. This dismissive air of ” I know it’s bad. This is unacceptable” etc has past the expiration date years ago. This is all pretend to occupy the community’s mind that something will get done. The powers that be like to create chaos to deter attention from the truth. Sadly, we all fall for it. Again. And again. Read closely: the people who make the decisions at the top should be held accountable for decisions made. Period. Don’t act like its impossible to do this. It can be done. Why are teachers taking 90% of the blame nationwide for the downfall of education? Why would any person with a grain of common sense risk student loan debt, poor career prospects, a broken system, outrageous student behavior to come into the education field? Look for the nail in the coffin in the above article. Amazing.

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